Autotask gets it with regards to the community they built. There are plenty of companies out there with forums where it appears there is little buy-in from the employees. Autotask, thankfully, has put forth a lot of time and investment to make the community work. They have Jesse, the fulltime evangelist, always on it. They have support personnel, programmers, and officers showing up. Before the community, I had no idea who anybody was (we came over from the failed N-Power offering). Since the community opened up, I now feel like we’re partners with Autotask, not just another small customer.

We’re tiny, barely showing up on their bottom line, but they have reached out to me many times in the last 6 months. And not just Jesse, but being contacted by Bob V. multiple times meant a lot to me as a customer. I’ll also echo Mark at TechCare, it seems like every time they reach out to me for their product, I learn more about running our business. They’re not just providing a great way to better their product, they are actually spending time bettering our businesses.

I’ll be the first to hold their feet to the fire on some deficiencies in their program (which they are constantly updating), but I will completely defend them in their commitment to create, support, and be a part of a thriving Autotask community.

As for supporting the MSP community, others can speak to that better than I can. However, if they are slow to be a part of outside forums and blogs, it probably is due to them taking care of their current customers first in light of the huge investment they are taking on updating their offerings.